Family Involvement in Management and Risk-Taking of Family Firms: The Moderating Role of Kinship Composition

Abstract

Newswise — Corporate risk-taking is a crucial factor that influences firm growth, performance, and survival. Based on the socioemotional wealth and agency theories, we investigate the effect of family involvement in management on risk-taking by considering the moderating role of kinship composition. Using data on Chinese listed family firms, we find that increased family involvement in management significantly reduces family firms’ risk-taking level. The richness of family managers’ kinship weakens the negative effect of family involvement in management on the risk-taking level. Our study enriches the socioemotional wealth and agency theories, by introducing insights of the differential order mode perspective, and demonstrates the significance of kinship ties of family managers on family firms’ risk-taking strategies.